Switchbacks, Snakes and Sliding Boards

So running is never without its inherent risks, especially trail running.  Who would have known one of my most debilitating injuries would come from falling down a sliding board!

I mean, this maybe...but a sliding board??

But yeah, 15 miles into a 20 mile run, I thought it might be fun to go down a vintage wooden slide, and the combination of being wet from sweat, along with not sitting down fast enough caused a full out butt fall.

This doesn't look dangerous at all!

 My tail bone is just beginning to forgive me more than 7 weeks later.  Curiously enough, running didn't hurt at all, in fact, nothing standing hurt, and if I could stand 24/7 for the almost two months it took to heal, it wouldn't have been a problem at all.  It was all that pesky driving, eating, and working that were tricky.

But at least since I could still run, I could train for Holy Cowan's Gap.  It had been almost two months since I ran an ultra, and the itch was starting.  Feeling somewhat of a failure after two attempts at 100 miles, I wanted something that would test my ability to persist/complete something really hard.  I was going to wait until Catoctin in the summer, but really needed a day in the woods, so what the heck.  Even Coach's descriptive email didn't deter me from entering:
 
The course starts with a quite steep medium long rocky climb.  From there it crosses a lot of plateau (you see this in the video) and a lot of rolling hills, and forested and open areas.  Really quite beautiful.  At some point you go into the woods and go slowly downhill, turn right and start up a stream.  No trail, just stream.  With water, ferns, and mud.  It gets steeper and after you don't think it can get much more steep you have to scramble up a hillside to a road.  Cross the road and the world tilts really steeply up.  I mean steep.  Get that done and it is a mixed bag of  geography until you are back at the picnic pavillion.  Out on the northern loop.  Probably 5 miles to the stupid steep hill.  But once you cross the ridge you scramble across a boulder field.  Just a pile of huge rocks, finally out onto a forest road and then you begin to go up again.  And if just gets steeper and steeper and the trail is not maintained, and you are laughing and crying and cussing and screaming at the sky  like a madman until you get over the top and make your way back down.  And then when you don't think it can get worse....you go up again.  And it gets steeper and steeper and you are laughing and crying and cussing and screaming at the sky  like a madman until you get over the top and make your way back down. And then its five miles or so  back to the BBQ... (sounds fun, right???)
 
.For this race, because it is tough, you have to be accepted, so I anxiously awaited my letter.  Even though I have run lots of ultras, I have struggled on a few of the harder ones.  When I saw my name on the entrants list, it occurred to me that now I HAD to finish this! 

To fully appreciate this accomplishment, you probably should take a look at this short video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2_Mei3Rugo
Especially notice how happy all the runners are going up the very straight trails on the mountain.  I really like the runner who says "with all this room, why not have switchbacks??"  Great point.  I guess they are not just for making runners dizzy.  As much as I was up for a challenge, I must admit that the last two times up the mountain were not pretty.

To make this run more super fun, we even came across a rattler hissing on the side of the trail.  Lucky for us, Don talked nice to it, so it calmed down pretty fast.

The views from this run were amazing, and it was a great day out there.  It took me 9++ hours to complete the 31 miles, and it was hard, but the calf massage, great food, wonderful people and beautiful scenery sure made it more than worth it.  I would do it again in a heartbeat!